802 
HIE RTJUAL NEW-YORKER 
EEC 7 
ing of stone, say, perhaps an average of five to 
10 pounds to the foot, or we cover the entire 
surface with wheat bran. We find it a 
good idea to put a light weight on the sil¬ 
age, though a great many recommend a 
covering of chaff or cut straw. 
Dundee, Ill. 
FROM F. W. A. WOLL. 
The method that we have used for three 
years past, is as follows: When all the fod¬ 
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der has been put into the silo, it is tramped 
down around the walls and in the cornel’s, 
and leveled. Tarred building-paper is then 
put on the top of it, making the paper lap 
over some few inches along the walls. A 
layer of sawdust, one foot deep, is put on 
the top of the tarred paper, and that com¬ 
pletes the covering. By this method we 
have never been able wholly to avoid the 
spoiling of some of the silage directly un¬ 
der the tarred paper. As a rule, about six 
inches of the top layer have t'cen unlit for 
cattle food. A report has recently come to 
us from a prominent farmer in this State 
who has avoided this loss of fodder from 
the top of the silo by the following method 
of covering: On the top of the fodder he 
puts a layer of straw a foot deep, then 
tarred paper, and then another foot layer 
of straw. His silage is said to be well pre¬ 
served close up to the straw without any 
mold. The method seems good, but we 
have had no experience ourselves as to its 
general utility. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
FROM H. A. SWAN. 
After the silage has been put into the silo 
let it stand two days, then cut in about a 
foot in depth of green marsh grass 
(green clover will do); cover this with barn 
boards cut three-quarters of an inch shorter 
than the length of the pit, to allow them to 
follow the silage as it settles. Over them 
put a covering of tarred paper followed by 
another covering of narrow boards, placed 
over the joints beneath the paper. I have 
always found my silage in perfect condi¬ 
tion on opening the pits. 
Kent, Ohio. 
FROM GEO. T. POWELL. 
I cover my silage with about one foot of 
straw, with no weight. It opens well, with 
hardly any loss. The straw is thrown into 
the pig yards and quickly worked into man¬ 
ure. Deep silos need but a slight covering 
and no weight, while those only eight or 10 
feet in hight require both, or great loss will 
result. 
Ghent, N. Y. 
FBOM J. T. BROOKS. 
I have 10 silos on three different farms, 
and am experimenting each year. Last 
year I rejected heavy stone weights entirely; 
in fact I dispensed with weights of all 
kinds, and found there was no loss of 
silage in consequence. This year I acted 
as follows: At farm No. 1 there were four 
silos. Each was covered with one foot of 
cut straw well tramped, and nothing else. 
It has formed a close mat, and absorbed 
the moisture from the silage. I began us¬ 
ing the latter about two weeks after pack¬ 
ing and find it all that could be desired. 
At farm No. 2 there are two silos. The 
silage is covered with uncut hay about one 
foot deep and plank followers are laid 
loosely over the surface—there are no 
weights. The contents of one were fed 
from the time it was packed, and all the 
silage has been good thus far. The other 
silo has not yet been opened but I have no 
fears for the result. At farm No. 3 there 
are four silos. We are now feeding good 
silage from one which was filled in Septem¬ 
ber 1, 1888. The other three pits were filled 
this year and covered with uncut straw, 
and plank followers laid closely over the 
silage without weights. After five years’ ex¬ 
perience I learned that heavy weighting is 
entirely unnecessary. In 18881 filled 10 silos; 
the silage was cut, as usual, in half-inch 
lengths, pretty well tramped when put in 
and covered with hay or straw, then with 
tarred paper and followers fitting closely, 
and weighted with only a few sticks of 
wood to keep them in place. The silage 
was good at each farm as long as it lasted, 
which was till August 1 at farms Nos. 1 
and 2, and we are still feeding it at No. 3. 
Salem, O. 
FROM J. T. EDWARDS. 
I weight my silage by a plan devised by a 
certain Dr. Bailey of Massachusetts. I have 
three silos each 13 by 14 feet. We fill each 
pit until the silage is within five or six feet 
of the top. Then we smooth it down and 
lay on it three planks through which nine 
bolts four feet long have been thrust up¬ 
ward as shown at Figure 287. Then we 
place on these planks some short ones, as 
shown in Figure 288. Then we proceed 
with the filling until the silage is nearly to 
the top of the bolts. We cover with planks 
over which we place three scantlings with 
bolts going through each, as seen at Figure 
289. Next we take a two-foot wrench, we 
turn up the nuts of the bolts so as to com¬ 
press the four feet of silage into a cheese 
about 2)4 feet thick. This will preserve the 
four feet of silage, and these four feet will 
make the weight to press the rest. If one 
cannot turn up the nuts to press the four 
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Fig. 28 S. 
feet into 2 % at the first attempt, he 
should repeat the operation for a few days 
and he will soon press the stuff to the re- 
quiied solidity. Silage thus weighted 
keeps perfectly, as I have proven for years, 
and there is very little trouble or expense 
in preparing it. When ready to feed, sim¬ 
ply remove the planks and take off a shav¬ 
ing every day. The planks need not be re¬ 
placed. 
Randolph, N. Y. 
Explanation of Figure 287 shows the 
three planks placed on the top of the silage. 
The planks arebbb and the bolts a a a. 
The short planks are put on as shown at 
Figure 288 in which the bolts are a a a and 
the planks c c c. The top is shown at 289 
in which d d d represent the planks e e e 
the three scantling and a a a the bolts. The 
whole system of cover and press is shown 
at figure 290 in which all these letters are 
repeated. 
FROM E. P. CLARK. 
My silo has been in use four seasons. 
Two days after the silage has all gone into 
the pit, we cover it with six inches of 
straw, then put on a double layer of boards, 
and on top of this four to six inches of saw¬ 
dust. This method of covering is quite 
successful. 
Mahoning, O. 
FROM C. R. BEACH. 
This is my third year with silos. As to 
how I cover after the silage is all in : The 
first year I covered with boards ; then with 
tarred paper; then with about a foot of 
dry marsh hay, weighted with a few fence 
posts. The silage kept well. Last year I 
covered with tarred paper and the same 
amount of hay, omitting the boards, and I 
did not weight. The silage was injured 
five or six inches. This year I covered with 
fine rowen grass five or six inches deep, put 
on green, and on that about a foot of barley 
chaff and fine straw (omitting the paper 
and boards). The silo was thoroughly 
tramped every two or three days. I opened 
it yesterday ; but little, if any, is injured. 
Anything will do for covering that will ex¬ 
clude the air, and ,if the silage is occasion¬ 
ally tramped, weighting can be omitted. 
Whitewater, Wis. 
MORE ABOUT SELLING CROPS. 
ARIZONA. 
P. O., Dudleyville, Pinal County.—We 
had our first frost October 29th. I cut 
my last crop of Alfalfa—the fourth cutting 
was made October 26—about 45 tons from 
seven acres. One half of the seven acres 
has been seeded nine years and the stand 
is good. No manure has been put on the 
ground. It has been irrigated sometimes 
once and sometimes twice between cut¬ 
tings. All crops are a good average. Not 
much oats or rye is raised in the Territory. 
W. A. L. 
CANADA. 
Delaware, Out.—I am breeding thor¬ 
oughbred stock. The crops grown 
here are mostly such as can be produced at 
the least cost and to the best advantage. 
The only crops sold are wheat and occasion¬ 
ally barley. My experience with wheat has 
been such as to teach me to sell as early as 
possible. I grow a very superior sample and 
most of it is required for seed. This season 
I was about the first in the market with 
wheat and I got 96 cents for milling pur¬ 
poses—several cents more than it could be 
sold for now. The same was the case last 
year and again in the previous one. I be¬ 
lieve the proper time to sell is ■when one’s 
produce is ready for the market, whether 
grain, beef, mutton, or pork. One should 
let the Chicago bulls and bears do the 
speculating. It is their game and should 
be left to them. R. G. 
DAKOTA. 
Ordway, Brown County.—My chief crop 
is wheat. I sell m the fall generally for 
help, thrashing and machinery bills due in 
October and November. I take a lot of pa¬ 
pers, farming and general newspapers, to 
keep posted. Many are believed to be 
printed in the interest of the wheat-buying 
ring which has all the strength of the Big 
Four in the beef business in Chicago. Bills 
payable cause me to sell. I hold when I 
can, and have hopes for better prices. I 
believe ,the crops of the Northwest, and 
of the entire country for 1889, to be grossly 
exaggerated, and that products will be 
worth more before seeding time. 
M. O. II. 
BON Homme, Bon Homme County.—My 
main crop is hogs. I watch the Sioux City 
and Chicago markets on mess pork and 
hogs. The price of mess pork is quoted a 
month or tw r o ahead, and the mess pork 
governs the market for hogs a great deal in 
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Fig. 289 . 
this country. If mess pork is quoted lower 
for December than for October I get my 
hogs on the market as early as I can and 
vice versa. f. w. h. 
Our principal crop at present is wheat. 
We have not been able to find any truly re¬ 
liable reports to depend on, as the markets 
seem to be controlled to a great measure by 
grain-buyers. I keep posted as to prices 
as well as possible through the different 
papers. Wheat is mostly marketed in the 
fall at the convenience or need of the 
holder. During the last six years wheat 
has averaged a better price in the fall than 
in the winter or spring. H. T. D. 
Ipswich. 
ILLINOIS. 
Mound Farm, Kankakee County.—M 
chief products are Short-horn bull calves, 
hogs and potatoes for seed. The calves run 
with the cows until fall and are sold when 
from six to eight mouths old, bringiug 
from $40 to $60 apiece. After the calves are 
sold the cows are milked and butter is 
made and sold to private families in the 
city. The heifer calves are taken from the 
cows about the same time. The sows drop 
their pigs in May and June. The sows are 
fatted and sold in November ; the pigs are 
held until February, the Chicago market 
governing the time of selling. They are 
fed all they will eat from the start. The 
potatoes are left in the ground as long as it 
is thought safe, then dug and pitted as 
soon as possible. Round holes are dug 
about two feet deep and large enough to 
hold from 25 to 30 bushels below the sur¬ 
face of the ground. The potatoes are left 
higher in the center, and are covered with 
straw and earth. In such pits they will 
keep fresh and without sprouting until 
wanted. They are sold to farmers about 
planting time. The Thorburn has disap¬ 
pointed me. I thought it one of my best. 
Out of 75 bushels I could not find one with¬ 
out scab. Most of the grain that is grown 
on the farm is fed out. When I get any¬ 
thing ready for market it is sold. 
T. C. D. 
Stillwell, Hancock County.—My chief 
products are wheat, pork and corn. I sell 
my crops during the winter when the mar¬ 
ket is not glutted, as that is the most 
convenient time to market. I rely a good 
deal on the crop reports in the different 
papers I take. The Rural New-Yorker 
is my chief source of information. Crops 
this season are up to the average all round, 
except late potatoes. Stock of all kinds 
looks well. Pastures are good. Apples 
are about one-third of a crop. J. B. 
MENDOTA, La Salle County.—Stock of al¬ 
most all kinds are put upon the market 
hereabouts at almost all seasons of the 
year. Corn and small grains are sold when 
ready or when the money for them is 
needed, whether the price is high or low. 
My neighbors have been selling their last 
year’s crop of corn to make room for this 
year’s crop for from 25 to 30 cents per 
bushel. This is a reading age and every 
farmer’s boy from 10 to 15 years old knows 
all about the markets in Chicago—which is 
our market. My family read 10 newspapers 
and all of our neighbors’ families are well 
supplied with reading matter—foreign as 
well as local papers are commonly taken. 
Saturday is a gala day in Mendota for the 
farmers who come in and talk over every¬ 
thing and have a general, jolly, good time. 
0. c. B. 
INDIANA. 
Evansville, Vanderburgh County.—The 
majority of our farmers are not in a condi¬ 
tion to hold their crops for high prices, so 
they have to sell as soon as they get any 
particular crop ready for market. Others 
who are able to hold do so and sell at the 
best prices. Wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and 
hay are our principal crops. Wheat sells 
for from 60 cents to 70 cents; oats, 15 to 20 
cents ; corn, 25 cents to 30 cents; potatoes, 
20 cents to 25 cents; hay, $10 to $16 per ton. 
Wheat is looking up, and those who have 
kept their wheat crop will I think get a 
dollar a bushel before two months. Two 
wide-awake papers are published in our city, 
which give us both home and foreign mar¬ 
kets. We have a city of 50,000 inhabitants 
that gives us a very good home market. 
Our wheat harvest commences about the 
middle of June, and thrashing about the 
first of July and those that cannot hold 
their wheat sell as soon as it is thrashed. 
Oats are harvested soon after wheat and 
are thrashed at the same time as wheat. 
Corn is gathered in October and Novem¬ 
ber, potatoes are dug also in the same 
months. We have been blest with abun¬ 
dant crops this year but prices have been 
low. 
Enterprise, Spencer County.—I find, 
Fig. 290 . 
caking one year with another, that it pays 
to sell when a crop is ready for market; but 
sometimes I hold. Newspapers, crop re¬ 
ports, tlieR. N.-Y., price-currents, etc., keep 
me posted in regard to markets. Our crops 
are the staple oues. Market facilities are 
